The Mistletoe Bride of Talbot Block

6/29/2025

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
On January 1, 1929, an old structure in Nashua, New Hampshire was being demolished. Underneath the floor of the attic of what had once been a rookery, workmen were astounded when they discovered a human skeleton.

Demolition crews found the remains of woman hidden under floorboards (c.1929)

The 100-year-old building at old Union Block at High and Main Streets faced demolition from the top floors down since it had been condemned. For the past 50 years stores occupied the first floor, offices were on the second and four small apartments were on the third floor.

Even a Universalist church had been housed in the top floors of the building 75 years before. However by contrast some other businesses were of a dubious nature.

New Hampshire was a dry state, and suffered from speakeasies and bootleggers long before prohibition was the law of the land. The Old Block was reputed to be the longest bar in the state.

A crew started to knock off the roof and rip up the attic floor. The workmen knew that knocking out these old building sometimes yielded a stash of valuable items including coins, and the time-honored custom was finders, keepers. So every time the rotted planks yielded to crowbars they looked carefully through the debris to see what lay below.

Suddenly one of them came across a board that resisted his pull, and he saw it had been double-nailed. What the man saw caused him to drop his tool and swear an oath. The others surrounded him, as the foreman came up the stairs. What they beheld was the skeleton of a human foot. There was no mistaking what it was. So many men gathered on that part of the flooring it gave way with a crash, and from the plaster that fell to the story below, more bones were found.

Police were called, and then the medical examiner came to the building. The cavity was explored and a leg bone came to light. The bones that fell from the ceiling were part of an arm and a pelvis. Whoever hid the bones took great pains to erase ways of identifying of what turned out to be a woman. He removed her clothing and stripped the flesh from her bones.

It was confirmed the skeleton was not one that was ever used by a medical school or physician.

Access to the attic of the building was by a steep stairway in a corridor running between the apartments. It was unused except for storage of personal belongings of the occupants of the building. A space of about 3 feet in height separated the ceiling of the apartments from the floor of the attic It was in this space where the skeleton was found.

The strangest twist in the case was the discovery of a photograph of a woman in an old-fashioned dress left close to the human remains. The photograph was identified as a young bride who vanished from Nashua 27 years back. What a strange thing to find among those dissected bones. Was it a sentimental mistake on the part of the murderer, or just a decoy to lead police astray?

There were other reports of a book found near the bones which dealt with the white slave traffic.

Was this a picture of Blanche Menter, the "Boston Beauty" or the Mistletoe Bride of Union Block? c.1929

Police supervised the rest of the demolition. They sifted through debris sent down by the chute, and found among them pieces of human vertebrae. From this small collection the medical examiner determined they belonged to a woman in her twenties.

As the work progressed a skull was pulled from the bottom of a partition wall with a tattered newspaper from the Nashua Press dated March 28, 1902. The newspaper had long since closed its doors. Police examined records of who rented the building, but the spaces had been let and sublet to numerous people, including bootleggers which usually gave false names and addresses.

The police turned to the photograph, and found only one studio in Nashua that dated back to 1902, but it had changed hands five times. Most of the old plates had been thrown in the trash, and those that remained did not match the unknown woman. However a citizen of Nashua, A. G. Tipping, had been a partner in the Nashua Laundry during 1902 and recognized the girl. He said her name was Blanche Menter Blackmun. She came from Boston and worked in the laundry. She married and suddenly quit her job. He remembered her well because she was one of the prettiest girls that ever worked there.

Police reviewed the laundry's records, and it showed that Blanche left without notice in 1902, however most thought she left because of her recent marriage. Mr. Tipping remembered her as being in her early twenties which corresponded with the medical examiner's findings. Others came forward and confirmed the identification of the woman in the photograph as being Blanche Menter or the "Boston Beauty" as she was called. Everyone agreed that she left town abruptly and never wrote to any of her friends. Was Blanche the victim?

Inspector McCarthy who was in charge of the investigation, thought the clue was too good to be true. He knew that whoever killed this woman had kept her somewhere else and took his time to deflesh her bones. He probably minced the meat and disposed of it in myriad ways. The eyes, the hair and even the brain had been removed, leaving only clean bones that appeared to have been boiled as well. Inspector McCarthy knew this took a lot of time and patience, and only a calculating mind knew exactly how to plot each step, including scattering bits of the skeleton through the floor and walls. Could someone this meticulous have left behind a photograph?

The grave of Blanche Menter and her daughter Etta Mae, both buried in 1918

The main motive for stripping the flesh away from the bones was to prevent odors that soon would have betrayed the strange burial. Once he was sure this would never happen, he felt sure the building would never be demolished in his lifetime.

The inspector said, "No, that job was done by a thorough, hard-headed, practical man who must have thought of every contingency including the fire hazard, which might have caused the block to be torn down at any time. That murderer did not knowingly leave anything that would help and he was certainly not a careless fellow."

Police diligently continued in their investigation and found Blanche's husband in Billerica, Massachusetts. Mr. Blackmun came to Nashua and said he divorced his wife in 1918, and she immediately remarried a man named Edward C. Marshall, and moved out to Denver. She died later that same year, and he received a letter informing him of the death of "Mrs. Marshall, your former wife."

The Inspector was not surprised, and this confirmed his suspicion the killer knew Blanche left town suddenly, and that people would be wondering what happened to her. Somehow he got her picture, and thought that by dropping it with the bones, the search would be led astray. He knew if any discovery was made he would read about it in the papers, giving him enough time, to make his escape. That is, if he was still alive.

Their biggest obstacle was how much time had elapsed since those bones were hidden away. If they could learn who owned the picture, they could trace how he acquired it. Perhaps follow his movements and find if in some neighboring town, a young woman went missing. However like some mysteries, the more you know, the more it deepens.

Even though many people identified the picture as the "Boston Beauty", Mr. Blackmun said the woman was not Blanche. Jennie Menter Andersen, a cousin also denied it was her.

Colorado death record with reference to Blanche Menter Marshall and her daughter Etta Mae c.1919

THE FATE OF THE BOSTON BEAUTY

Investigation into the fate of Blanche Menter Blackmun Marshall proved that indeed she was not the Mistletoe Bride of Talbot Block.

She was born in 1887, and despite her title of the "Boston Beauty", happiness was not in her stars. She married Reuel Blackmun as recounted by the citizens of Nashua. On April 5, 1913, she gave birth to a premature baby, and on October 16, 1914, she gave birth to a stillborn son. As Reuel told police they divorced, and she married Edward Marshall and moved to Colorado. She died in childbirth along with her daughter Etta Mae in 1918. She was 31 years old.

Considering the inspector had two credible persons confirm the picture was not Blanche Menter, he had to wonder how this killer had been able to find a picture of a woman who looked remarkably close to the likeness of a woman, who conveniently left Nashua abruptly. It also matched Blanche's height and weight.

He never found the answer to those questions, neither the name of the lady hidden in the attic, nor more importantly the name of the one who put her there.

The murder of Roxie Baker (Zelia Baker) at the Union Block building c.1909

MURDER AT THE UNION BLOCK
It seemed that murder had visited the apartments at the Union Block building in the past. In October, 1909 the body of Roxie Baker (born Arzelia "Zelia" Chicoine) was found in her apartment at the Union Block. A janitor had smelled a bad odor coming from her room. Roxie's decomposing body was found with a loop of rope around its neck, which was tied to a bedpost, however her windpipe was untouched. Described as a "prepossessing blonde" about 40 years of age. Her face was drenched with blood and there was a bloodstained cloth over her face. The bed clothing was also bloodstained.

Besides this, there was no sign of disorder in the room. The bed had not been slept in, but there were indications of a person having lain upon it.

Roxie Baker had appeared before the superior court two weeks before her death on a charge of keeping liquor for sale in her apartment and was fined $15.

The police believed this was murder, however they were mystified as to the motive since two valuable diamond rings were found, one on her finger and the other on the floor near the body.

Little was known of the woman's background, except that she had a sister living in Claremont. She had once been married to a man named Frank Baker, but his whereabouts were unknown.

As to whether Roxie Baker committed suicide or was murdered is unknown. There was reference made to prior murders in the building, but it seems the Union Block had a reputation for skulduggery long before the Mistletoe Bride of Talbot Block was found in her attic tomb, and it was so commonplace the stories were not covered by the local newspaper.

This is the original story of The Mistletoe Bride.